Monday, August 02, 2010

Bob Weir Stumbles and Falls

I'm just back from Gathering of the Vibes and will recap that later, but before I left the Internet was a buzz with talk of Bob Weir being really off his game and totally spun on the first night of FURTHUR's 2 night NYC Nokia Theatre run which preceded their Friday night Vibes headlining spot. I was always a Team Bobby girl in my glory years of traipsing after the Grateful Dead, so it always pains me to hear the hate spewed in Bob's direction like this thread over on philzone.org: "Bob Weir just took an $80 shit in my mouth". Mostly I was concerned something was seriously wrong health wise with him.

Talk ranged from him being medically ill to being dosed, or drunk. Bobby had flubbed the lyrics to Truckin at Herkimer which I attended but was able to get right on track after smacking his head. But El Paso linked up below wasn't pretty. He starts the song over about 5 minutes in and they ended it shortly thereafter. The second night Phil either covering for Bobby or being truthful stated : "Never drink out of something you haven't poured yourself". Amen Brother, as a recovering alkie/garbage head I have to be hyper-vigilant myself.

Years ago I remember issues with spray bottles and people being dosed with liquid acid. MG aka Mountain Girl came out on stage and told everyone to basically keep their drugs to themselves. I forget her exact words now but she likened it to a violation akin to rape. I know friends who would have been grateful for the freebie but to force someone who hasn't every done a hallucinogen and who may or may not be able to handle it is just not right.

And for those of you who can't fathom how he can forget lyrics after 40+ years and has a teleprompter to use, the teleprompter may not help Bobby all that much. Part of his trouble during his early school years is he suffered from undiagnosed dyslexia.

Regardless, he shook it off and was in fine form on Friday night at Vibes rocking his man-pris.

2 comments:

I went on Summer Tour 2010 with Bobby, Phil and the boys. The only hiccup was at the Nokia. It was unfortunate, but the rest of the band was able to provide us with immeasurable enjoyment. There were many vocal gems from, Phil Lesh and John Kadlecik. I had a great time listening to the music. Jeff Chimenti is fabulous on the keyboards. Joe Russo is a powerful drummer. Sunshine Becker and Jeff Pehrson are amazing vocalists as well. Phil's bass playing is da bomb! Hearing John K and Phil Lesh sing, was worth the price of admission. I do not regret being at that performance that I paid $85 dollars to attend.